It is a common belief that an injury, trauma or congenital deformation to a joint or limb must be immobilized to be corrected. For this reason the joint or limb is wrapped in a cast for months at a time to effectuate healing. For example, a brace or splint is secured to the body used to maintain alignment during a fracture healing of a bone. Immobilization of a joint or limb results in atrophy secondary due to lack of use. For example, in order to protect the elbow status-post surgical correction for ulnar entrapment immobilizers may be used. However, immobilizers lack range of motion allowing for adhesion to disuse atrophy. Improvements in this area have been mainly directed towards the use of lighter materials that improve the construction, comfort and hygiene of those individuals in need of fixation to various extremities.
Orthotics is a broad term that is used for devices that may be applied to the body to restrict or enhance motion or to simply support a body segment. The body has several types of movable joints. Ball and socket joints, which allow free movement in all directions, are found in the hip and shoulder. Hinge joints, allowing movement in one plane only, are found in the elbows, knees, and fingers. Pivot joints, permitting rotation are found between the first two vertebra. Gliding joints, in which the surface of the bones move a short distance over each other, are found between various bones of the wrist and ankle. Orthotics being a branch of biotechnology deals with the application of force through a mechanical device. Orthotic treatment may also be useful in the management of patients having various injuries to the joints including fractures of a long bone, rupture of muscles, cartilage and tendons. Some of the earlier evidence of orthotics dates back to Hippocrates who describes in detail methods of influencing the position of joints and stabilizing fractures.
Off-the-shelf orthoses can be professionally fit in a doctor's office and are typically selected by measurement of the anatomical segment. In other instances the orthoses is custom-made. In either event the function of the device is to influence body segments by the application of force to provide support, correction, or stabilization. This may provide mobility to a weakened muscle. However, it is not uncommon for the orthosis device to fail the expectations placed on it due to either spastic muscle groups, excessive reaction forces, or simply the weakening of the surrounding muscle.
Still other orthotic devices are used to protect and area. For instance, in order to protect the elbow status-post surgical correction for ulnar entrapment immobilizers may be used. Such devices afford protection but lack range of motion allowing for adhesions to disuse atrophy.
A further problem in the art is the lack of protection available to prevent injury in sporting activities. While devices exist to cushion impact, no known devices exist designed to allow a full range of motion yet prevent movement into positions that may lead to injury. For example, a race car driver requires a full range of motion but should an accident occur, the prevention of overextension may prevent breakage of the arm. This applies to basketball, football, or any other type of sport.
Further, no protection is known for otherwise non-contact sports such equestrian or polo. For instance, equestrian riding may place a person's back in a precarious position during jumping. Commonly such riders use no protection and should they fall they could break their neck or otherwise damage there spine. Use of a pad cushion does nothing to prevent such injury.
Attempts to provide dynamic braces have been made such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,814 sets forth a dynamic splint that couples to the upper and lower arm but fails to provide rotation support.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,137 discloses a segmented dynamic splint which accommodates normal joint component motion including triplanar motion but fails to provide a stability or protection.
Thus, orthotic devices typically serve to provide either stability, mobility, or protectablity. What is lacking in the art is a device capable of performing all three functions.